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Teaching All Students to Read: Practices from Reading First Schools with Strong Intervention Outcomes

Improving the effectiveness of interventions for struggling readers requires a school-level system for early identification of 'at risk' students and then providing those students with intensive interventions. Learn from Reading First schools with demonstrated success in reaching struggling readers.

One of the most critical needs in Florida's Reading First schools is to improve the effectiveness of interventions for struggling readers. For example, during the 2005-2006 school year, only 17% of first grade students who began the year at some level of risk for reading difficulties finished the year with grade level skills on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS®) measures. In second grade, the figure was only 9%, and in third grade it was 8%. We will never teach all students to read if we are not more successful with the most academically challenged students. Teaching all students to read requires a school level system for early identification of 'at risk' students and a school level system for providing those students with the intensive interventions they need to become proficient readers.

This summary document highlights the main ideas from our complete report which describes what we havelearned by visiting Reading First schools demonstrating success in reaching their struggling readers. Together, the summary and complete report (available at http://www.fcrr.org) will serve as a "manual of ideas" for meeting some of the most difficult challenges faced by Reading First schools in working with their struggling readers. School leaders will find ideas described here that can be applied to help them successfully meet the uniquechallenges within their own schools.

The Reading First plan for success

We must increase the quality, consistency, and reach of classroom instruction by providing systematic and explicit initial instruction, and by providing differentiated instruction delivered individually or in small groups. Small groups should be differentiated by:

We must administer timely and valid assessments to identify students lagging behind and monitor progress.

We must provide intensive interventions for students who are lagging behind in development of critical reading skills.

Why Must We Work at the School Level to Provide Effective Interventions?

Children enter school with very diverse instructional needs. They differ in:

their talent and their preparation for learning to read words accurately and fluently

their oral language knowledge and abilities — vocabulary and world knowledge

their abilities to manage their learning behaviors and their motivation to apply

themselves to learning to read

Some children may require instruction that is 4 or 5 times more powerful than the rest of the students.

The classroom teacher, alone, may not be able to provide sufficiently powerful instruction to meet the needs of all students.

What Do We Know About the Characteristics of Effective Interventions?

They always increase the intensity of instruction. To increase intensity:

increase instructional time

decrease number of children in instructional group

improve quality of instruction

They always provide many more opportunities for re-teaching, review, and supervised practice.

They are focused carefully on the most essential learning needs of the students.

They provide instruction that is both explicit and systematic.

How Was the Information Provided in this Document Collected?

We visited and interviewed principals, teachers, and coaches at schools that were having the most success in providing eff ective interventions.

We also visited schools that were having less success — in order to help identify more specifically some practices that were unique to the successful schools.

How Were Effective Schools Identified?

We first identified the Reading First schools from 2004-2005 that had the highest Index of Effectiveness

for Interventions (EI) across grades K-3 combined.

The EI (Effectiveness of Intervention) Index indicates the percentage of students who began the year at some level of risk for reading difficulties, based on their DIBELS® performance, but who grew rapidly enough to meet grade level expectations by the end of the year as measured by the DIBELS® tests.

Once the schools with the highest EI percentiles were identified, four criteria were used to identify 10 schools for visits:

an ECI index score above the 60th percentile

The ECI (Effectiveness of Core Instruction) Index indicates the percentage of students who began the year reading "at grade level" based on their DIBELS® performance, and who were still reading at grade level at the end of the year as measured by the DIBELS® tests.

at least 50 students per grade level

percentage of minority students above the state Reading First average of 66%

percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch above the state Reading First

average of 74%

Data on the Top 10 Schools Meeting the Effective School Criteria

School

EI Score

EI %ile

ECI Score

ECI %ile

% free and reduced lunch

% minority

% ELL

# of kids in K-3

A

39

99

83

82

89

84

47

499

B

36

97

83

79

99

98

55

463

C

34

95

89

95

80

82

22

455

D

33

93

88

93

93

94

42

487

E

33

91

84

84

75

78

31

428

F

32

89

85

89

85

80

37

618

G

32

89

80

67

93

93

25

480

H

32

89

84

84

73

67

31

556

I

31

89

79

66

87

95

27

301

J

31

89

90

67

70

99

11

575

After visiting the ten high-performing schools and a few less successful schools, several common qualitiesamong the successful schools emerged. These qualities were not observed as consistently or as clearly in theless successful schools. The following seven traits were areas of strength for the schools in the top percentilesfor intervention effectiveness. Each area deserves careful consideration when implementing a school wideintervention system that will be able to meet the needs of struggling readers. Under each of these headings, wewill provide examples of specific practices implemented at successful schools.

Concluding thoughts and resources

Schools need to consider aspects of each of the seven traits to be successful.

The traits are intertwined in producing success. Strong leadership at the school level is critical for the success of school level systems.

To make this complex system work, knowledgeable leaders and dedicated teachers need to work together to establish a school culture focused on high standards and confidence that goals can be achieved.

Any of the seven traits mentioned above when considered in isolation will not make a school successful. All ofthe successful schools were good exemplars of several of these traits. It is critical that as a school works to build an effective intervention program, it considers aspects of each of the seven traits. It is difficult to say one trait is more important than any other or to discuss them as separate items because they are so intertwined. For example, professional development and belief systems may not seem as important as getting the schedule setor picking the best programs, but even if the schedule allows for the best student: teacher ratio, and a strongresearch based program is available to support instruction, success is not guaranteed.

The program needs to be implemented with fidelity and skill, and the teacher needs to believe that all of his/her children can learn to read. It is important to have the time scheduled for small group instruction using a research-based program, but it is equally important to have teachers who understand how to use the program effectively and make adjustments to instruction based on student need.

To facilitate knowing what to teach, the teacher will have to interpret data on a regular basis, and this same data will need to be the basis for school-level decisions about allocation of resources and scheduling. In order to manage this complex system, leaders must be knowledgeable about the children, the teachers, and the nature of effective instruction. Strong leaders need to inspire high standards and confidence that goals can be achieved to allow for the integration and implementation of the components of an effective school wide intervention program.

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